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Let's Go to the Carnival: Hybridization of Heterotopian Spaces in the Films of Kevin Smith Anthony L

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Let's Go to the Carnival: Hybridization of Heterotopian Spaces in the Films of Kevin Smith Anthony L University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 3-9-2015 Let's Go to the Carnival: Hybridization of Heterotopian Spaces in the Films of Kevin Smith Anthony L. Sylvester University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Sylvester, Anthony L., "Let's Go to the Carnival: Hybridization of Heterotopian Spaces in the Films of Kevin Smith" (2015). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5584 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Let's Go to the Carnival: Hybridization of Heterotopian Spaces in the Films of Kevin Smith by Anthony A. Sylvester A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Humanities and Cultural Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Robert Snyder, Ph.D. Daniel Belgrad, Ph.D. Andrew Berish, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 9, 2015 Keywords: puerility, rhizome, carnivalesque, ethos Copyright © 2015, Anthony A. Sylvester TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Movie Synopses ............................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter One ................................................................................................................................... 9 Carnival Ethos ................................................................................................................... 9 The Fool ........................................................................................................................... 11 De-Crowning ................................................................................................................... 12 Nostalgia ......................................................................................................................... 16 The Grotesque Body ........................................................................................................ 17 Chapter Two ................................................................................................................................. 23 Heterotopia ....................................................................................................................... 23 Rhizome ........................................................................................................................... 27 The Mall ........................................................................................................................... 28 The Coffee Shop .............................................................................................................. 33 The Fast Food Franchise .................................................................................................. 37 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 42 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................. 46 i ABSTRACT This paper argues against the charges of puerility in the films of Kevin Smith. I analyze Mallrats (1995), Clerks II (2006) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008). To illustrate my contention, I offer close readings of the director's films, particularly the protagonists' bodily/linguistic performances. My efforts will vindicate my assertion that through these specialized performances, through the forceful assertion of their marginal identities, the films' protagonists encroach upon, and finally appropriate, historically dominant spaces. As a result, the spaces they appropriate acquire a new, characteristic hybridity. Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia provides a framework for delineating the dominant and liminal spaces within Smith's cinematic/real worlds. Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the carnivalesque helps to elucidate the vagaries of the films' bodily and scriptural performances, while both Kevin Hetherington's concept of utopics and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's notion of the rhizome attempt to marry Bakhtin and Foucault. through the notion of appropriation of public space through performance to ultimately achieve a utopian, pluralistic ethos. ii INTRODUCTION There is little to no critical exegesis on the films of Kevin Smith. Full-length studies have yet to be written and what is written has been relegated to film reviews and minor articles from movie critics. Although Kevin Smith's films have often been critically praised for their witty, erudite writing, they have been summarily labeled as puerile and vulgar. Roger Ebert called Mallrats "a conventional assembly of cliches." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine dismissed Clerks II as nothing more than ''a pointless exercise in scatalogical jokes and bestiality gags." He repeatedly, and mistakenly, calls all of Smith's protagonists 'stoners' that are 'forever immature'. The Village Voice's Robert Wilonsky decries Smith's "erratic writing and flaccid direction," yet calls Randall, one of Clerks' main protagonists, a "pustule of lewd ruminations." The Voice's appraisal of Randall is creatively succinct yet ultimately reductive and labeling. I believe this labeling belies the films' social implications. In Smith's seminal films such as, Mallrats (1995), Clerks II (2006) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), the protagonists doggedly assert their authentic identities in hegemonic (consumerist, bourgeois) spaces such as the mall, cafe or convenience store. I will use the works of these social theorists to bolster my contention that the hybrid spaces Kevin Smith creates are those which foster close-knit assemblages of ardent personalities through both linguistic and bodily performance, those that purposely forgo any formations or hierarchies axiomatic to the dominating hegemonic system. Smith's tenacity in asserting his identity in the public sphere without the exigencies of the Hollywood publicity machine is what sets him apart from most filmmakers. The main locus of 1 Smith's identity-formation was the comic book subculture. The latter's ethos permeates each of Smith's seminal films. Smith and his cohorts spent a great deal of time within these marginal sites--the latter defined by sociologist Kevin Hetherington as "sites that have social centrality for those engaged in transgressive and alternativist activities" (121). They, like Smith's later cinematic creations, asserted their identities with the only weapons in their arsenal--their ability to express themselves, to extemporize on various topics, either through witty, fecund conversation or bodily performance that is simultaneously jovial and bombastic. In these marginal spaces within the subculture, status is gained by how much 'cultural capital' one had acquired. The breadth of one's knowledge of the comic universe and one's zeal in articulating said knowledge with others in often-heated debates was important to all who inhabited these spaces. One can see in most of Kevin Smith's films that same zeal to express one's infinite knowledge of comics and related pop-culture intelligence (e.g. Star Wars, John Hughes films, etc) with others--either of their ilk or an outsider. The conversation Smith engenders through his writing is definitely Rabelaisian in that it is a beguiling mixture of the vulgar and erudite yet, at its core, is a celebration of popular culture. The autonomy and linguistic flair that Smith's cohorts and their cinematic counterparts exhibit in public spaces is considerable and completely antithetical to the protagonists of most 'teen comedies' (as well as their audiences). Witness an exchange between Brodie and his best friend, T.S. Quint: Brodie: It's impossible. Lois could never have Superman's baby. Do you think her fallopian tubes could handle his sperm? I guarantee he blows a load like a shotgun--right through her back. And what about her womb? Do you think it's strong enough to carry his child? 2 T.S. Sure, why not? Brodie: He's an alien, for Christ's sake. His Kryptonian biological makeup is enhanced by Earth's yellow sun. If Lois gets a tan, the kid could kick right through her stomach. Only someone like Wonder Woman has a strong enough uterus to carry his kid. The only way he could bang regular chicks is with a Kryptonite condom. But that would kill him. (Smith, "Mallrats Companion" 19) This stylized, agonistic banter is a staple of the comic book subculture and of Kevin Smith's films. Notice that Brodie and Quint are not discussing sales in the mall; they are not girl- watching, and they are not engaging in the mindless, adolescent palaver like most mall denizens. In the age of technologically-mediated conversation between today's youths, Smith's films assert the power and fecundity of extemporized, unmediated, erudite pop-culture dialogues between interlocutors. Smith's
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